Daniel Farke insists his selection surprises did not backfire in Norwich City’s 4-3 Championship defeat to West Brom.

Ivo Pinto’s return at left back, following an injury-hit pre-season, and the absence of Tom Trybull were eye-catching calls but it was individual errors that proved costly at Carrow Road.

Tim Krul palmed Jay Rodriguez’s long range effort into his own net at a crucial stage in the contest and City were also punished for defensive slackness, while Jordan Rhodes had a tame penalty saved.

“As a coach you are always thinking did I get it right, would I do it different.

“I don’t have that feeling from this game,” said Farke. “We felt we got many of the selections right but the individual situations killed us.

“Tom is always solid but we wanted to take even more risk and bring in a more offensive minded player who can play that number 10 role in Moritz Leitner. I got the feeling that totally worked.

“It was obvious we needed a striker on the bench and Dennis Srbeny was crucial in the last game. We needed a centre back option so we have Christoph Zimmermann, then you have to keep in your mind the homegrown rule and both Ben (Godfrey) and Louis (Thompson) can play in that holding role.

Pinto was deployed to keep Matt Phillips in check, although the Albion flyer did escape to set up the third visiting goal.

“He is a key player for them and James (Husband) wasn’t there with the best performance at Birmingham,” said Farke.

“Ivo looked really sharp during the week and we know Phillips likes to cut infield so even though Ivo hadn’t played so much in his career at that position he was the one to defend Phillips. He was good defensively and also created a lot for us with his attacking runs.”